


The Twelve Years of Panem

by merciki



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M, MrsClaus!Effie, MrsClaus!Katniss, North Pole, Peeta is the next santa, completely crazy story, santa!haymitch, santa!peeta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-16
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-09 00:00:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 8,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8868268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merciki/pseuds/merciki
Summary: Peeta Mellark and Katniss Everdeen were chosen to be the next Santa and Mrs Claus. Follow their story thoughout 12 years of training.Written for "The Twelve Days of Panem" on Tumblr, hosted by @loveinpanem.Each chapter is a prompt. Each chapter takes place a different year.





	1. Snow

**Author's Note:**

> My deepest thanks to @dandelion-sunset for her betaing skills.
> 
> Prompt 1: Snow.

They first met on the sleigh taking them to the North Pole, on a snowy winter day.   
She had been picked up first as she was already bundled up in blankets on the back seat of what passed to the outsider for a car - but was actually a sleigh, complete with reindeers and bells.

“Nobody’s saying goodbye to you either?” the girl had asked.

Peeta had shook his head from left to right. Nobody cared enough to send him away to a fancy school he got accepted in in the middle of the school year. Nobody had asked questions, as if they had been magically bewitched. But this was real life, not a Harry Potter book, Peeta had thought.

“Apparently,” he answered, looking at the girl in front of him, realizing she was about his age, but different in every other way. She had dark hair when his were the color of the wheat fields in the summer - and her eyes… his artist’s eye had noticed them immediately. Grey was such a rare color for eyes, he had almost never seen it, so different from the blue in his - but way more appealing in his opinion.

“You know what this is about?” he asked, looking around.

“No, it’s like nobody cared I was leaving.” The girl looked out as the sleigh started to move forward, until it really lifted off the ground, into the sky.

“I think… I think we’re flying?!” she said. “How is it possible?”

“Well, you know who the only flying sleigh belongs to…”

“And we know Santa doesn’t exist!” she added.

“Did you try to get out?” Peeta asked, trying to reach the handle opening the sleigh.

“I wouldn’t do it if I were you. It’s a long fall, and Rudolf doesn’t like picking up people who fall. Something with the wind.”

The two teenagers almost jumped in surprise, at the words coming from a pile of blankets in the bench facing them. 

“Get out of here, whoever you are!”

A tiny green hat came out of the blankets, followed by a smiling face of a small man with pointy ears and a white beard.

“I’m Plutarch. I’m the head Elf. I’ll be the one helping you during your training.”

Peeta looked at the creature in front of him, then at the girl sitting next to him, trying to decide whether he was completely crazy or not.  
“Our… training? What are you talking about?”

“Well, you both seem to find it’s completely normal to climb into a car that’s actually a sleigh, right? And said sleigh is currently flying at…”, the creature turned towards the reindeer, shouting, “Rudi? What’s the speed?”

The weirdest thing was the animal actually responded.

“Mach 1.3 and going.”

Peeta took the girl’s hand in his, trying to anchor himself to something real since he was obviously losing his mind.

“You’re not losing your minds,” said the elf, looking at him. “First things first though. You’re Katniss Everdeen?” The girl nodded shyly. Katniss, Peeta thought. What an extraordinary name.

“And I hope you are Peeta Mellark?” asked Plutarch, looking straight at Peeta, who nodded.

“Well, now that’s settled, we can move forward.”

The tiny creature extricated himself from the blankets, before sitting on it and opening a heavy book.

“So you have been chosen to be the the next Santa, Peeta.”

Wait, what?! Peeta thought, his brain raging to try and find another meaning to the words he just heard. The next Santa? But Santa didn’t exist? It’s a legend created for children.

“And I have to believe I’m the next Mrs. Claus then?” Katniss asked, her voice so full of sarcasm it was almost dripping.

“Exactly! See how bright she is!” Plutarch seemed excited about her answer. “So now, I’m taking you to the North Pole so you can start learning about your duties, and about each other. You’re going to fall in love, you two!”

“As if! I’m never getting married!” Katniss said.

“Santa?” Peeta hadn’t recovered from the statement that he was to become the next man in red. “But? How?”

“Well, Haymitch and Effie.” Plutarch turned the book to show them a picture of a couple before continuing, “They want to retire and go to Belize and travel for the rest of their life. So, it’s time we look for the new couple and spend the next twelve years training them. It’s simple, really.”

“I’m never marrying him,” Katniss said as she looked out of the sleigh, seeing the land getting away, so far away. “So you will have to take me back.”

“The book is never wrong. You’ll see,” the elf answered casually. 

“And our families?” Peeta asked, looking at the girl next to him. He was pretty sure she was like him, wondering what would happen to them until they could come back.

“They will forget about you. You’re going to live more than anyone else on this planet, so it’s better if they don’t see you anymore. How would you explain to your brothers and sisters that you don’t age?” Plutarch asked. “As soon as you came into this sleigh - there’s no turning back. You’ll be responsible for continuing the Christmas tradition, until a new couple is named.”

“No. I refuse. I can’t stand Christmas!” Katniss argued “And there’s no magic to it, it’s just a commercial holiday! And my dad….” She stopped talking, as if the fire she had let out had extinguished, and gazed out again. Somehow, Peeta realized, it had started snowing, yet no flakes were falling into the sleigh.

He wondered what her dad had done to make her dislike Christmas so much.

“We have no choice?” he asked the elf, who was searching in a bag that had appeared at his side.

“No. You were chosen for a reason.”

“And what is this reason?” Peeta wanted to know what he had done to be in this sleigh, at that moment.

“Because you were picked. Both of you. By the Book,” the elf clarified, as if it were the answer to all questions. “Everything will be explained in due time. Now, enjoy the ride.”


	2. Year 2 : Carol

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Training has now started for Peeta and Katniss. Find out how this year turns out .

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Deepest thanks to @dandelion-sunset for her beta skills.

“First things first,” Plutarch had said after the whole Claus camp had recovered from the first Christmas Peeta and Katniss had spent there.  
“You need to learn the Christmas songs. All of them.”

Peeta and Katniss had shared an inquisitive look - they knew their deal of carols, like anyone else.

“We already know them…” she had answered the elf, crossing her arms in front of her, a scowl on her forehead, a sign Peeta had started to associate with her being pissed at something.

“You already know some of them. In English. Do you know them in French? Polish? Japanese?”

“Why would we need to learn them?” Peeta asked curious, his hand on Katniss’s arm to prevent her from speaking her mind. He had learnt that too, to be the calm to her tempest, the rational to her passion, the quiet to her anger.

“Because Santa is universal?” the elf shrugged before lifting his head. “You’ll likely be spotted some times while on your distribution, so it’s better to know how to speak the language. The more you learn, the easier it will be.”

“We can’t learn all the languages! It’s impossible!” Katniss said, shrugging away Peeta’s hand on her arm. “Are you all completely crazy?”

“Why do they always say that?” Plutarch grumbled. “You’ll do it. You were chosen for a reason.”

 

Peeta remembered the talk the elf had given them weeks ago, and sighed.  
Today, the snow outside was shining, a blanket of white only bothered by the green of the trees, planted here and there, a good distraction from the annoying carolling lessons being taught by none other than Effie.

“So, see, it’s not that complicated! You just need to be able to say “u” instead of “you”. Haven’t you taken French in school?”

“No,” Peeta heard Katniss grumbling under her breath, and he restrained a chuckle. To say Katniss didn’t like learning other languages was the understatement of the year. But when she started to sing… that was something else entirely. Her voice could make the elves and dwarves stop working in the workshop, and Peeta was pretty sure the snow owls outside came to the classroom’s window to hear her sing.

To say her voice touched him to the core was saying kids didn’t expect Santa to come.

He was sure his heart stopped beating the first time he heard her sing “Little drummer boy”. He couldn’t remember anything else but the purity of the sound, taking him back to a time when he was a little boy and would spend hours listening to the carollers at Christmas.

“So, on three, both of you!” Effie’s voice brought Peeta back to the here and now, where they were asked to sing. In French.

“Oh, quand j’entends chanter Noël…” He couldn’t help it. When Katniss was singing, he had to stop and listen. His voice, deep and often off-tune was no match to hers, and he’d rather listen to it than disturb the peace and quiet that was falling over him as she sang.

So he stopped, bathing in her voice.

He knew he was a goner.


	3. Year 3 : Star

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of Everlark fluff ?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My deepest thanks to dandelion-sunset for her beta skills

There was something deeply appealing to living in the North Pole. The endless fun of living in the Claus’s house, the magnificent landscapes around, the lively city where the farm was established, in plain sight. 

But what made the place fascinating for Peeta were then endless nights in winter, adorned by the northern lights dancing in the sky, and the endless summer days, when the sun never went down, only pretended to hide under the line of the horizon to peek back up minutes later.

Once again, as he was sitting on the field behind the farm, he tried to draw and color the spectacle in front of him. The radiant sun, bathing the sky in all reds and oranges, was slowly falling down without any cloud to come shade his radiance.

Nothing, only light.

And damn if he would manage one day to get that shade right.

Peeta sighed, gathering his pencils lying on the green grass of the meadow he was sitting in. One day, but not today, apparently.

“You’re an artist.” Her voice startled him. He could never hear her coming, her steps as light as a cat’s.  
He turned his head and looked up, taking Katniss’s form as she was leaning against the tree, arms crossed on her chest, the loose hair of her braid dancing in the breeze.

“Barely. I draw things to quiet my mind. Doesn’t make me an artist.”

Katniss slowly moved to sit next to him, her hand reaching for the sketchpad in front of him, before she started tracing the line of his drawing.

“You’re a painter. You’re a baker. You like to sleep with the windows open. You never take sugar in your tea. And you always double-knot your shoelaces.”

“What’s that?”

“The list of things I know about you.” Katniss shrugged.

“Wow. Deep stuff.”

“Yes.”

Her eyes were still drawn to the sketchpad on his lap, until she looked up to meet his, clear as the sky. He could see she wanted to look at it, but didn’t dare asking about something so personal. 

He handed her the book.  
She opened it.

The first drawings were his family - even though the memories were still there, they were fading away one day after another, lost to him as he was lost to them.  
He could see her, tracing the face of his dad or his brothers with her finger, as if memorizing them, even though she never met anyone in his family.

The next pages were of the Claus’s place. The farm, the reindeers, the elves in the workshop, Haymitch checking his lists, even Effie in full teaching mode. Some of his drawings made Katniss laugh, but she mostly remained silent through it all.

Until she reached the pages where she was featured on.

“You drew me?”

He shrugged, not looking at her.

“I draw everyone…”

“But not like that,” she added, her voice soft in his ear.

Had she noticed the drawings he made of her were special? That there was a quality he couldn’t define when he was painting her braid or trying to recreate the grey of her eyes, the shade of her skin, or the sound of her laugh on paper?

He was suddenly fixated on the faint glinting of a star above the horizon. He was sure it wouldn’t last, as the sun would soon start its journey back up.

He couldn’t watch her as he answered.

“But not like that.”


	4. Year 4 : Holly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peeta wants to drive the sleigh on his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks to @dandelion-sunset for her beta skills

He wasn’t ready.

He knew it before doing it. But something inside him made him take the whole sleigh - ten reindeers included - out to prove them wrong.

To prove to them that he didn’t need to be ordered around, that he could make his own decisions.

But this had been a mistake, he realized, wondering how he would stop the animals now that they had realized he wasn’t able to handle them properly yet.

On the bright side, the gang of reindeers was having tons of fun, taking sharp turns, and even trying for loopings.

Failing, so far.

“We can do the loop, guys! Let’s give the rookie a show!” Blitzer screamed at his carriage mates, who all cheered at the idea - which worried Peeta to no end.

Because by now, he was pretty sure Blitzer was the craziest of them all, and every idea coming from him was scarier than the precedent.

“Guys - I’m not sure it’s - oh my!” Peeta tried to say before the sudden move of the sleigh started to jolt him all across the bench, as the reindeers started to climb, climb, climb higher.

Until they weren’t able to anymore, too exhausted maybe.

That’s when Peeta felt the sleigh sliding. Backwards. Hauling the animals with it.

“Push the button!” Rudolph yelled from the top of the line.

Right. The big, red, emergency button.

Reaching over the wooden dashboard, his hands shaking, Peeta pushed the button, regretting it almost immediately, as the sleigh separated from the reindeers’ harnesses, only to fall back onto the ground.

Of course its descent was slowed down by the safety parachutes (obviously bought by Effie, if he had to rely on glitter only).

Of course it could have gone way worse than it did. The sleigh only had a few marks, and Peeta only got injured in his pride.

If it hadn’t been for the holly bush in which he fell.

Katniss spent a lot of time removing the berries from his hair.

And the spines from his back.

But she laughed all the while making his adventure so worth it.


	5. Year 5: Tinsel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peeta overcomes one of his fears ..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> many thanks to the awesome @dandelion-sunset for her beta skills

The hardest thing was to go down the chimney stealthily, Peeta thought as he looked at the one he was using for practice.

Peeta was a lot of things - kind, charming, hardworking. But when he walked, his tread was never as light as Katniss’s. He often thought she must have been a cat in a previous life or maybe a panther. He liked the idea of the wild animal, and could completely picture his friend walking silently in a tropical forest, her senses all focused on her prey, wild and free.

He sometimes wished she was the one having to go down these chimneys, instead of watching him struggle with where to put his hands and feet, and what to grab to climb higher, brick after brick.

But the worst came after. When he had to be careful not to step on whatever was put in front of the hearth - and people had the weirdest ideas, apparently.

He already knew about the slippers in front of the fire. But some people were more… creative. Food, toys (and he didn’t want to think about how hurtful legos were), animals, papers, mice traps - sometimes, Peeta didn’t know if Haymitch was speaking of experience or just inventing crazy details.

Maybe both, now that he could think about it.

Taking a deep breath, he looked down the brick chimney in front of him. He could do it, right? He was the next Santa, after all. He just had to climb down a dozen of meters, in his fireproof suit, avoid the trap that he was sure was put everywhere on the ground, and drop a few packages around the christmas tree.

No big deal, right? He would have to do that a zillion times as soon as Haymitch would let him tag along on Christmas night.

He focused on the big hole in front of him, adjusted his headlamp, climbed over the parapet, and started his dive into the big dark under him.

At first, it was easy, going down the bricks as he could still see where to put his hands and feet.  
Until it was completely dark.

And the fear started to climb up his spine, like almost every time he was in the chimney.  
Sad memories were coming back to him, of a time he wasn’t sure what love was, when his mother had shown him -

Deep in the meadow  
Under the willow...

A voice, her voice, stopped his train of thought. Swept off into the dark of the night, the fear and the tears that had threatened to fall. 

Peeta lifted his head towards the light of the day, above him, where Katniss was, looking at him with worry in her silver eyes, still singing.

Their eyes met in an understanding look. She had her struggles too - he could hear her at night.

She held him in her gaze - he wasn’t able to tell for how long - creating a lifeline between the two of them. She sent him the strength he needed to overcome the dark, to fight the monsters in his head, to go back down to the hearth.

She sang all through his way down.

He dodged the fire. Escaped the little crumbs on the ground. Avoided walking on the trumpet.  
Successfully placed the packages under the Christmas tree, before grabbing some cookies.

The way out of the chimney was easier, the promise of light and air being a good motivation.

When he was done, her arms when she hugged him was the best comfort.

Her laugh when he handed her the silver tinsel he had grabbed from the tree was his reward.


	6. Year 6: Candy Cane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's that time of the year.  
> The Candy Cane Race.  
> Find out how Peeta did for his first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My deepest thanks to @dandelion-sunset for betaing !  
> i'm thegirlfromoverthepond on tumblr !

“It’s tradition ! You have to do the Candy Cane race, Peeta!”

Effie’s voice was final, her tone clearly showing she wouldn’t welcome a rebuke. 

“But it’s Haymitch’s race, not mine?” Peeta answered “I’m not ready and -”

“It’s your turn Peeta. You have to do it one day or another.”

“Then I’ll take another day….”

“You go put your sweaters on, and start training. The race is in a week!” Effie reminded him.

“A week?! But-”

“No but! You go train!” she added, starting to turn on her heels before stopping the movement. “I’ll send Katniss to help you.” She was out of the room before he could even react.

Katniss. He had barely seen her this week - she was busy in the courrier department, trying to learn the intricate process that had the letters coming from all over the world to be decrypted in the North Pole.

And due to modern technologies, it was a hell of a task that fell under her area of responsibilities.   
And she had to do it with Plutarch and Effie.

Peeta felt sorry for her. She still came to dinner, her eyes red from looking at too many letters or mails, her scowl on her forehead and massaging her temples constantly, as if to loosen the tension in her head and neck.

“Are you ready?” Yulos’s voice brought Peeta from his reverie. 

“For what?” He asked, wondering what the elf meant.

“i’m the trainer. So we train. Grab your sneakers, Mellark, we’re going running.”

And run, they did.  
Every day, over the valleys and hills surrounding Unari, they ran, Peeta trying to follow the rhythm the elf inflicted, trying to jump over tree trunks and rocks, under branches, around bushes - whatever was coming their way. Yulos seemed to have never-ending endurance, running while talking, every day a bit faster, a bit longer.

It wore Peeta out. Completely. Even though he knew this would be nothing compared to the efforts needed for the Candy Cane Race.

Where he would have to literally jump over the candy canes the elves had been working on for days - each one different from the other, and from the ones from the previous years. All Peeta knew about the race was what he saw the years before - not a single one was the same.

The day of the race came too quickly for him.  
He wasn’t ready.

His muscles were sore from working out too much, for running around Unari every day for hours long, up and down, down and up, again and again until exhaustion was too much.

But what he wasn’t expecting was competing with Katniss.  
Against Haymitch and Effie.

And obviously, Katniss was as surprised as he was when Plutarch grabbed her hand and brought her to him.

On the other side of the now displayed track, Haymitch and Effie were very reluctant to come close too, apparently not expecting to be part of the race.

“So, this year, we decided to spice up the Candy Cane Race!” Plutarch said, as the crowd of elves, dwarves, reindeers and all started cheering.

“It’s Hayffie against Everlark!” Flavius, the mail elf shouted to the now crazy audience, applauses rising above the line of trees.

“I can’t run! I have heels!” shrieked Effie, as the elf dragged her towards Haymitch.

“They they carry their wives!” Plutarch said to the crowd. “Wouldn’t it be fun? They are strong enough”. The roar of the crowd was enough of an answer for him. “The it’s settled!”

He turned towards the four people waiting for him in different stages of anger.

“Santas! Grab your wives and get ready!”

While Haymitch took a deep pleasure hoisting Effie over his shoulder like a bag of flour, Peeta was extra careful holding Katniss in his arms. He wasn’t about to lose an opportunity to hold her as close to him as possible.

Peeta held her during all the race, his entire body filled with her scent, her ears full of her laugh as they dodged the snowballs traps, or the candy canes in front of them.

He held her until they had crossed the line, a long time before Haymitch and Effie, until he dared place a small kiss on her forehead, making his heart stop for a beat before thumping wildly in his chest.

Best Candy Cane race ever.


	7. Year 7 : Mistletoe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To pick or not to pick mistletoe ?  
> that's the question.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My deepest thanks to @dandelion-sunset for her beta skills.
> 
> Do not hesitate to leave comments :)  
> i'm thegirlfromoverthepond on tumblr.

Peeta was really starting to wonder what in the name of everything that was holy he was doing on a branch of an oak tree, crawling slowly to the shrub of little white fruits that were only inches away.

Even if the noise coming from the branch was somehow scary.

Like crackling wood.

Or a branch that would break.

It wasn’t like he was sitting on a branch, right?

Testing the wood, he moved closer to the shrub, taking a small breath, then took his swiss knife out to cut the base of the shrub.

He watched as the mistletoe fell on the ground, moving away from his spot on the branch, slowly backing away until he reached the trunk.

Facing a new problem.

For climbing had been a hard enough task, going down seemed to be worse.

And he was pretty sure nobody would come to his help for the next few hours. And if somebody did come, he hoped it wouldn’t be Haymitch, who would leave him up in the tree.

Effie would never venture into the woods, she wasn’t Katniss by any stretch.

And it couldn’t be Katniss. He would never hear the end of it if she was the one to find him on the top of a tree, like a poor cat waiting for the firemen to rescue him.

No.

Peeta knew he needed to do it by himself.

What was it they say? What goes up, must come down? 

It seemed though that all the branches had moved, to make the path he’d taken less easy, almost unreachable.

It couldn’t be worst than a chimney, right?

Taking a deep breath, he looked at the first reachable branch, weighing his chances to catch it, or fall completely down and break all the bones in his body.

“You’d better aim for the other. It’s stronger.”

From his vantage point he couldn’t see where the voice was coming from.

He just knew who it was coming from.

“Katniss? Where are you?”

“Watching you, Santa. So. The smaller branch. It’s stronger.”

“It doesn’t seem so…”

“You don’t trust me?” Her voice cut through the cold air. He still couldn’t see her, even though he now knew she was somewhere on his right.

“It’s not you I don’t trust, it’s the branch….”

“Maybe it’s time to take a leap of faith, Peeta…”

It’s not that he didn’t trust Katniss, far from it. Over the years, they had reached an agreement, a way of working together - but this was something else entirely. It was putting his life in her hands - or rather, in her eyes.

Maybe it was time to take a leap of faith, indeed.

Peeta looked at the frail branch Katniss had asked him to pick, before slowly moving, relying on only his strength to grip the trunk, too afraid of falling to relax.

He tested the branch with both feet, until he was sure it could support his weight - which seemed to pause no problem. Releasing a breath, he started to look at the next one, this time easier to reach. Branch after branch, he made his way down the big oak tree, until he reached the ground of the forest.

The feeling of the snow under his feet was a relief. Seeing Katniss leaning on the trunk of a nearby tree was a surprise. He hadn’t heard her voice after she guided him to that first branch, and had just assumed she would be long gone by now.

“You’re strong,” she said, looking at him.

“I’m cold.” Peeta shrugged, grabbing his coat from the bush he had put it on before climbing. He could feel the cold on his skin now that the adrenaline rush was fading.

Once he was covered, he started looking around for the shrub of mistletoe he had cut.

“You’re kind too,” Katniss said. When he looked up, he noticed she hadn’t moved an inch. 

He turned his head from her silver eyes, still looking for the plant, until he spotted it a few feet away.   
“That’s kind of a pre-requisite to be Santa,” he answered casually, not listening to the joyride his brain was playing - Katniss finding him kind. And strong.

“No. What I meant is… I’ve never met a person as kind as you are. Always ready to help, always caring, always doing his best to loosen the other’s burden.”

Peeta grabbed the mistletoe from the ground, taking the snow out of it carefully to preserve the fruit and the leaves, before he turned to Katniss, walking slowly towards her.

“Then you mustn’t have looked very much. Because I’ve seen at least one person as kind as what you described,” he said, holding his hand out. Leap of faith.

“Oh really? Who? Effie? Haymitch ?” Katniss asked.

His hand still extended, he smiled.

“You.”

He saw the moment the shock hit her, the exact moment when she realized what he had said.

He remained, waiting, until she took his hand and they started walking back to the house.


	8. Candle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Peeta's birthday in the North Pole ...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All my thanks go to @dandelion-sunset for the betaing :)

The stable was always a place where they would both find a place to hide and have a bit of calm, a pause in the middle of the storm and the everlasting joy in Santa’s workshop. 

Even by Peeta’s standards, the cheering could be too much - mainly when certain dates approached. His birthday, her birthday, their families’.

Even if they knew they’d been erased from their dear ones’ memories, it was still difficult to see time going by, their family moving on - without them.

They had called the little attic over the reindeer their own, where they had put trinkets of their life before the reaping, as they called the day they were taken from their families. Little nothings they had on them when they left, or things they asked the elves to collect during their visits in Panem. 

That day, though, Peeta was alone, sitting on the edge of the platform, looking at the reindeers under him.  
It was his birthday.  
And Katniss had forgotten.

“Be careful, Baker Boy, don’t you dare fall on us.”

Rudolph’s voice startled Peeta out of his thoughts. It had taken time for him to get used to animals talking - all kind of animals - and even after all these years, it was still completely crazy having a talk with a reindeer if he thought too much about it.

“Yeah, don’t worry, I won’t fall. I just need a bit of calm,” Peeta said, trying to keep the melancholy from his tone.

“It can be… tumultuous there, right?” the reindeer said, a bit of hay in his mouth. “We’re much better here.”

“Yeah, I guess so. I wonder if I’ll ever get used to that much cheeriness you know?”

“Met Haymitch?” Rudolph snorted. “At first I wondered why he was picked. But then… we knew.”

“How do you know?”

“It’s in the eyes. He cares. He went all out once because an elf - Tinus or Flavius - forgot a package in the workshop. He had us turn back and risk not being on time for our deliveries for just one kid. That’s when we knew.”

“Oh.” Peeta thought about what he knew about Haymitch, the grumpy man, always ready to use sarcasm and irony, but who never failed to ask how everybody was doing, even the reindeers. “He’s hiding his kindness.”

“He is. He’s not doing a very good job at it, though,” Dancer answered, his head now resting on Rudolph’s back. “He cares a lot about you and the girl.”

“I don’t know… but how do you know I will ever be fit to be the next Santa?”

Rudolph turned his head from the hay in front of him, to look directly at the young man still sitting on the platform above them.

“We knew when you climbed into the sleigh, and cared about the girl more than yourself.” A concert of “yup” echoed Rudy’s words, as the other reindeers started to nod their agreement. “You’re going to be one of those couples we won’t forget.”

Peeta snorted at the idea of him and Katniss being a couple in the long term. He knew what he felt for her was way more than friendship, but her - she never let any indication there could be more - and he doubted it would ever happen. 

“As if,” he said. “She doesn’t even remember…” He stopped, not wanting the reindeers to take pity on him.

“You’re an idiot. Of course I remember,” Katniss’s voice, coming from right behind him, cut the silence.

Peeta turned his head before rising to his feet. Katniss was standing there, on their platform, wearing one of Effie’s awfully badly knit pullovers, holding a small cake in her hands.

“Happy Birthday, Peeta,” she said, extending the plate for him. He took it, looking at the twenty-three candles on it, before blowing them out.

He was surprised, though, when her lips met his cheek, in the tiniest, sweetest, best kiss of his life.


	9. Angel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Written for the 12 Days of Christmas - Love in Panem  
> Prompt; Angel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My deepest thanks to @dandelion-sunset for betaing :)

“My dad always said they were the wings of angels.”

Katniss’s voice, so pure in the night, took Peeta out of his reverie. He was supposed to study his constellations tonight, but all he could focus on was the twinkling of them, so high in the sky, so beautiful.

Tonight, the Northern lights had been on full display. It was too much to ask his artist’s soul to remain insensible to the scenery in front of him. He had grabbed his sketchpad and the box of watercolors Katniss had given him for his birthday, hurrying outside to his favorite spot in the meadow nearby.

Drawing was all he had been able to do since he arrived.

Until Katniss’s voice broke his concentration.

“You need to teach me how to do that, really,” he said, chuckling lightly, as Katniss sat beside him and peeked over his arm.

“Do what?” she asked, turning page after page. “You really need to stop drawing me…” Her eyes were focused on the page she had stopped on, where he had pictured her laughing with Octavia, the best wrapper of all the elves, over a very poor attempt at bike-wrapping Katniss had tried her hand at.

Peeta just shrugged. She had asked him time and time again why he was drawing her, his shrugging being the only answer she ever got.

He didn’t know what kind of feelings she had for him, didn’t know to what extent she would be ready to hear him out. Not wanting to take a chance of ruining their friendship, he just shrugged, every time she asked.

He just loved to draw her, to capture who she was, the curve of her neck, the constellation of freckles on her cheeks, the grace of her hand, the loose hair coming from her hair tantalizingly. 

He took a deep cold breath, deciding to answer her question rather to explain to her why he needed to put her on paper.

“Walk without making any sense. One day you’re going to give me a heart attack.”

She smiled a sweet, gentle smile, before she lifted her head to look at him.

“You won’t have a heart attack. Your heart beats too steadily.”

“How would you know that?” he asked, surprised. How could she know that.

Her face turned mysterious, before she leaned forward, whispering closer to him.

“I know.”

She didn’t say another word, as it was her habit. She was a woman of few words, though they were all meaningful. She knew.

Without giving him any notice, she laid her head on his shoulder.

“My mother was a healer. I... just know?” She crossed her arms in front of her chest, her hands moving up and down her biceps. 

He didn’t think, really. He acted on instinct only.  
He draped his right arm on her shoulder, engulfing Katniss in the warmth of his coat, protecting her from the cold.

“How did you know?” she asked.

He smiled, winking.

“I know.”

Turning his head to the northern lights, he added, “Your dad was right. They look like angel wings.”


	10. Red And Green

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My deepest thanks to @dandelion-sunset for her beta skills !!!

“Peeta, please… I’m twenty-six, and you’re the only man available around!”

“What about Haymitch?” Peeta answered, trying to walk towards the door as stealthily as possible. And failing.

“First, yikes, second, he’s married! You want me to lose my virginity to Plutarch?”

“I’m pretty sure Plutarch’s not into girls - or elf-girls, whatever they are called,” he muttered, looking for another way to get out of this room - her bedroom. He knew for a fact he couldn’t climb out of the windows without risking breaking a bone or worse, getting a blame by Effie.

He also knew she wouldn’t move from the door until he agreed to her crazy plea.

But he wasn’t ready to give in.

“We have to get married at one point, so why not do it now?” she tried to argue and make her point.

“Because, no. I’m not that kind of guy.”

“What kind? I didn’t know there were kinds of men!”

“I don’t do casual sleeping. I need feelings.”

“Feelings? Come on, Peeta, don’t tell me if I was bare in front of you you wouldn’t act on it.”

“I wouldn’t.”

“Fine. You asked for it.”

He should have seen it coming. He should have known Katniss Everdeen never backed from a challenge. He should have found a way out of her bedroom - thinking of it, maybe jumping through the windows wasn’t such a bad idea now.

Because looking at him straight in the eyes, Katniss started to unfasten the buttons of her green blouse, one after the other, slowly, almost teasingly.

Well, maybe not almost. Completely teasing him.

Peeta took a deep breath, one that came from the bottom of his lungs, willing his body to stay completely still and unreactive.  
Because he honestly couldn’t actually tell her he had been dreaming of her doing exactly what she was doing, a good thousand times. This last year only.

“Katniss... please...” he pleaded. There was only so much a man his age could take, and seeing a glimpse of the strap of her red bra - red, for Heaven’s sake, he could swear she was going to be his death - was maybe too much.

Still, he closed his eyes, bringing back memories of dead puppies, toothless grannies, bad movies, to try and contain his treacherous body.

He knew he had to do something before his resolve crumbled.

Gathering his strength, eyes still closed, he took the first step towards the door, in front of which Katniss was still standing and no, he didn’t want to look at her, because he could hear the fabric on her skin, could picture the silk of the blouse passing her shoulders, slowly, could even smell her perfume as he got nearer to her - fresh pine and something so Katniss - and he was doomed if he didn’t leave now.

He never reached the door.

He was stopped dead in his tracks by Katniss’s whisper in his ear.

“I need feelings too. That’s why I ask you, and not the first guy I could meet in Unari…”

At her words, Peeta finally opened his eyes, turning his head to look straight at her.   
How he managed to not notice the amount of skin she was displaying just for him at the moment was a question he never answered. 

He was too mesmerized by the grey of her eyes, shining, holding his gaze strongly, letting him know she wasn’t asking for a pity fuck.

He was immersed in their silent conversation when he spotted the small tears threatening to fall, lingering at the corner of her eyes.

“You’re my family now, Peeta… and I’m yours,” she revealed, and he could see the truth in her words, in her eyes, everywhere on her body. 

They were alone, a team of their own.

“Okay, ”he whispered back. Because there was no one else he would have sex with on this goddamn planet.

“Okay,” she nodded.

He didn’t know who took the first step, the first move, who leaned further.  
In no time, though, his lips were on hers - or were hers on his? It didn’t matter at all.

His last thought before turning his attention to Katniss was to lock the door of the bedroom, inches from them.  
Before he lost himself into her olive skin, into the tantalizing maze that was her body, skin warm under his hand, supple under his lips, sweet under his tongue.

Before he lost himself to the sounds she made when his hands found the place she kept to herself, to the feeling of her body against his, to the discovery of all her secret places.

Before he lost his mind when her hands and lips started mapping him - teasingly, kindly, sweetly as Katniss took her time discovering the places that made him moan, the places that made him scream.

Until later, much later, when their bodies were almost satiated, they finally, finally became one.


	11. Tree

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katniss disappeared.  
> Peeta is looking for her

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> merci merci @dandelion-sunset for betaing :)

She had disappeared in a blink. After Effie’s remarks that it was inappropriate to share a bedroom and make so much noise at night, Katniss had flown through the heavy wooden doors.

That was seven hours and twenty minutes ago, and Peeta was starting to get worried. Not that Katniss couldn’t find her way back from the woods - he was pretty sure that, by now, she knew the countryside around better than a lot of people who’d been living there for a long time.

But it was still seven hours and twenty minutes ago.  
And night was already there - like during every winter, when they were only blessed with two to three hours of sun a day.

And it was freaking cold outside.

Like minus thirty degrees. Celsius. 

Peeta couldn’t wait any longer. Grabbing his coat, he exited the house in search for Katniss. She was somewhere in the woods, he knew that. 

But Peeta wasn’t a hunter, or a tracker. He didn’t know how to find traces of animals, much less a human in the snow, without getting lost in this sea of white.

He couldn’t care less - he needed to find Katniss. He wanted to find her.

So he headed outside, not caring about the cold, all his focus on her.

He had a pretty good idea of where to find her. He couldn’t explain it, a feeling just crept up in his mind, guiding him into the forest, to the tree - the one he had climbed years ago to grab Effie’s mistletoe.

He walked as fast as he could, avoiding the bushes and the logs hidden in the snow, knowing full well she would hear him arrive, but not caring. If she wanted to run, she was faster than him, could climb trees and walk in a forest without disturbing a leaf.

He saw her before he arrived, her red coat attracting him like the beam of a lighthouse would do for the lost ships - maybe that’s what he was without her.

The closer he got, the better his view of her was. She was sitting on a large branch, her back to the trunk, her legs under her chin, eyes lost to the sea of trees in front of her. Her face was half covered by the green scarf he gave her last Christmas, so long it was falling under the branch, swaying with the breeze. 

Peeta could see the steam escaping her nose as she breathed in and out.

She didn’t move. He wasn’t sure she had heard him.

“You’re not planning on climbing up, are you?” she asked him after a moment.

“Santa, no. Did that already, and definitely not fond of it. You must have been a squirrel in another life,” he answered, smiling at the thought of Katniss jumping from branch to branch as a squirrel.

“And you were an elephant…”

“HAr, har, you’re hilarious. No elephant would survive in this weather,” Peeta said, looking around for a safe place to sit. He rounded the trunk, deciding to slide across it, sitting on the ground, and started waiting.

“Mammoths did,” Katniss said from her perch in the tree.

“Too bad they’re extinct now.”

“Says who?”

“Biology, zoology, archeology. Oh, also the fact we’re not living in the Ice Age movies.” 

“We’re living in the North Pole. In Santa’s house! Pot, kettle,” Katniss argued back. Her way of avoiding talking about the things she feared.

“Why did you leave, Katniss?”

“I wanted to see mammoths.”

“Katniss….” his sigh was almost exasperated. Almost. He knew her well. “Let Effie say whatever she wants, right? We don’t care. We’ll share a bedroom if we want to. If you want to,” Peeta said, his voice a little less assured. He didn’t know whether she wanted that or not - it was something they had never discussed, sharing a bed, an intimacy every night, finding comfort in each other’s arms.

And he guessed they weren’t about to discuss this in the minus thirty degrees, outside, her perched on a branch, him sitting on the ground.

“We should get married, she said, just loud enough for the words to be carried by the wind to Peeta’s ears.

“What?! No, Katniss, we don’t have to--”

“That’s what is supposed to happen anyways. We have no choice. Our families forgot we ever existed and…” she moved her hands from under her arms, making air quotes, “it’s in the Book.”

Peeta shook his head.

“No. I’m not marrying you because it’s in Plu’s book.”

“Why else would you ever want to marry me?” Katniss asked, her voice loaded with sarcasm. “My charms? My brains? There’s nothing likeable in me, Peeta. I’m just the only option.”

“No. You’re not the only option,” Peeta answered. “I don’t care about the Book. It’s not because something is written in it that we have to follow it. If I marry you one day, it will be because you want it.”

He lifted his head, hoping to catch her eyes and convey his feelings for her.  
He didn’t expect her to be already looking at him, the silver in her eyes matching the stars above their heads. 

“What about you?” she asked in a mere whisper.

“What about me?”

“You said if I were to marry you, it’s because I will want it. What about you? Will you want it one day?”

Peeta turned his head, looking at the lights from the Claus house, away in the background.   
He sighed, standing up from his sitting position on the ground, choosing his words carefully.

“I already want to, Katniss,” he said to the wind. He started walking away from the tree, before he turned and look at her, still perched in her tree. “You’re kind and strong, fun and serious, you help me more than you realize every day. You’re the only person I can talk to here who understands me - understands that behind so much joy there’s sadness and pain. You have eyes that I will never be able to draw, fifty-four freckles on your cheeks and neck, and I’ll be damned if I don’t spend my life trying to find the exact shade of you skin color. I can spend hours next to you without needing to talk, or listen to you telling stories of the elves’ office without getting bored. You’re ways more than you think. You’ll just have to tell me if one day you want to get married and we’ll eat the gingerbread men together. But it should never be because of the book.”

He didn’t dare look at her, rather he started his journey back to the Claus’s house.

It was all in the open now. 

He felt lighter - but also so scared Katniss wouldn’t talk to him ever again. Which could be a pretty long time in the North Pole.

 

Thirty-two days later, though, she brought gingerbread men into their room.

They toasted on their bed, celebrating their union until the light of day shone on them.


	12. year 12 : Wreath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peeta is soon over with his training as Santa.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to Dandelion-sunset for the betaing :)

“Next year, you’re on your own, Kiddo. So watch carefully, and learn everything you can,” Haymitch had told him when they climbed onto the front bench of the overstuffed sleigh, before handing him the reins.

“You have your licence now, right?”

“Haymitch… it’s been years since the accident!”

“Still, safety first, so I’d rather ask,” Haymitch said, a twinkle in his eyes as he checked if Peeta had put the belt on, just like he would have done with a kid. “So. Are you ready?”

“Yes!” 

Peeta’s excitement was increasing with each stride of the sleigh - if stride was even the name for it because the reindeers were actually flying - with the knowledge that, thanks to him and Haymitch, on Christmas morning, kids all over the world would find what they had wished for for a whole year.

Even the ones who had been naughty. Because, as Haymitch often said “there’s always some good in a kid. It’s up to us to show him that, in the hopes that one day the kid would turn better.”

After countless chimneys, a myriad of doors, dozens of cookies and milk, or carrots for the reindeers, after travelling through clouds and winds, under a fading sun or an everlasting moon, over oceans and deserts, they finally saw the familiar roof of the Claus’s farm, sleeping silently under the cover of the snow.

“That didn’t go too badly this year, right?” Haymitch said, watching Peeta maneuver the reindeers into the stables, before exiting the sleigh. “I’m off to bed, I’m exhausted. I’m too old for that crap, really.”

In a second, the old Santa was out of the stable, undoubtedly heading towards the large, comforting bed he shared with Effie, leaving Peeta alone in the stable.

“It’s hard for him too, you know…” Rudolph said, as Peeta started to remove all the reindeers’ harnesses. “He’s been a good Santa, for a long time.”   
The other animals nodded their agreement.

“I know, Rudi, I know. It must be tough for him… and I’m not sure I’m completely ready to be the next one…”

“Trust me, kiddo. You were born ready. It shines out of you. We knew it the moment we saw you.”

Peeta felt himself blushing at the compliment. 

“But now, Santa, we’re famished. And thirsty. And cold!” Vixen’s voice was coming from the other side of the stable, making Peeta laugh. The elves would come soon to feed them, as they did several times a day, sharing stories of what was happening in the workshops or the mail room.

Peeta left the stables under the shouts of the reindeers, teasing him about the next year, when he would have to be Santa on his own, without any help.

He should be scared, he knew that he should. But he wasn’t. Right now, he was feeding on the positive energy coming from the successful delivery of all the toys, in time. 

For the first time in twelve years, he understood clearly what being Santa meant.

He made his way towards the main house, where his and Katniss’s bedroom was, wishing nothing more than rest - even though he was still too high on adrenaline to be able to sleep. 

He stopped, the hand on the doorknob of their room.  
Their room.  
Their.

If he had thought they would share a room one day. That they would be Santa and Mrs Claus one day - while remaining Peeta and Katniss.

He turned the doorknob slowly, so as to not wake her up.

But she wasn’t sleeping.

She was sitting on their bed, reading a book, a package next to her.

“You’re still up?” He asked, closing the door.

She nodded, as she closed her book. “There was still a package left.”

Was there ? Peeta started to worry a kid wouldn’t have his gift come Christmas morning.

“I’m sorry - I double checked and I thought … Give it to me, I’ll go with Rudy….” he moved forward the bed to take the wrapped package, but Katniss took it out of the way.

“It’s not for a kid, silly, I would have brought it.” She extended her hands, holding the package out for him. “It’s for you.”

“Me?” He was surprised, shocked even. It’s been years since the last time someone gave him something.

“Yes, you.” He took the package, and Katniss started to fidget. “It’s nothing big, really.. I just.. I kind of .. “

She couldn’t find her words, and she was adorable.

Peeta couldn’t help it. He leaned forward, pressing a kiss to her forehead, before pulling and leaning back to press on on her lips.

“Thank you, lo- Katniss.” 

He undid the ruban, amazed Katniss hadn’t noticed his almost slipping of the tongue, discovering the simplest of wreath.

Or so he thought.

He took a closer look, noticing the small things she had threaded in it. An orange ribbon. Feathers. A pencil. green grass. Mistletoe. Holly. Even fake flakes of snow. A candy cane. 

It was them. She had given him their history.


	13. Year 13 : Gift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peeta's first Christmas as Santa.  
> Will he get a gift?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to dandelion-sunset for the betaing :)
> 
> this has been a jolly ride, as I started writing this around Dec. 7th or so and struggled till almost the last day to have it completed.

Peeta woke to a welcomed silence.

Not a sound.

Nothing.

After the joyride that had been his first Christmas as Santa, after driving the sleigh around the world, trying to stay away from time, climbing up and down chimneys or going through doors, he could finally rest.

Or he should say, they could finally rest.

Katniss had been by his side during the whole tour, completely ignoring Effie’s advice about staying at home and taking care of the cleaning of the house.

She even climbed down some chimneys to avoid them being too late and off schedule.

She had calmed Comet when he had been frightened by an explosive lantern somewhere above China.

She had organized the ever coming flow of elves supplying the packages in the sleigh, making sure the order she had defined was followed - and not Effie’s, whose idea of order was apparently based on glitter and sequins the more glittery were the first served.

Exhausted, when the tour had been done, they had shared a drink in the now empty house, as the elves had the next days off, Haymitch and Effie being on their way to Belize, before crawling back into bed.

Their bed.  
They didn’t have the strength to have sex.

No.

But he got the best gift ever, that Christmas night of December.

When Peeta felt her stirring next to him, he turned on his side, meeting her silver eyes sparkling in the morning light. Or was it afternoon, already? He didn’t know, didn’t care.

He had more important things on his mind.

But he needed to be sure.

“Katniss?”

“Ummmm,” she mumbled, taking the time to stretch her long limbs. Somehow during the night, she had let go of her Santa outfit, keeping just her leggings and shirt, just as he was now only wearing his. 

“I have to ask you this….” Peeta gathered his courage, his eyes trained on her still sleepy ones. “Last night, before we fell asleep, you… “ He took a deep breath. “You told me you loved me. Real or not real?”

She smiled shyly, her eyes lighting his heart, his whole world suddenly revolving around her answer.

“Real,” she said.


End file.
